The Scent of Coffee
by Purple Shell
Summary: But what is in the mind of the infamous expressive Howard as he goes through his past, present and future thoughts? A challenge by: Regardless1604, known as "A Harvest Moon Addict's 100 Theme Challenge"
1. Introduction

**A Small Little Town**

This small town rarely bustled with people; always so quiet and peaceful. Coming from the life in the city, people though I was crazy for moving to a place only reachable by horse carts.

I rest my elbow on the counter of my café. It was almost opening time but not a lot of people would be coming in today. Bad for business, my family would say. Perhaps they were right.

"Good morning."

I felt a gentle kiss on my cheek. Laney smiled at me as she tied her apron around her waist.

_Nevermind. I'm happy where I am now_

* * *

**AN:**

Finally I've decided to take this challenge and write about Howard. He's a lovely character. I will write my own thoughts on Laney's mother in later chapters. Written as Howard's POV.


	2. River

**Picnic**

"Ishy!"

I carefully placed Laney at the shallow part of the river. It was our day off today and we were having sandwiches.

"Be careful, sweetheart." I called at her.

I had dreamt of having a picnic here. Only, at the time, I imagined the three of us would be here. I'd be preparing a sandwich while the girls tried their hand on hand fishing. Funny how some dreams didn't come true.

"I caught 'un! I caught 'un!"

I looked at the struggling fish in Laney's tiny hands. Maybe one day there would be a third member joining the family.

* * *

**AN: **

My first mentioning of Howard's wife. I wish I could draw baby Laney. I bet she would be adorable.


	3. Farm

**When She was Young**

She had a farm once. Probably someone in her family does until now. Was that the reason why she refused to stay in a small town like this with me?

From what I can remember, she always looked happy—during those trips she had when delivering her farm's milk to my parents' house. She was the reason I got interested in this kind of neighborhood. Everybody knew everybody. Everybody accepted everybody. Nobody accepted me in the city. Except her. And her farm folks.

I grew up liking farms. Why didn't she? I never understood and I guess I never will.

* * *

**AN: **

In my head, Howard grew up in the city. I can't remember if the game mentioned anything about Howard growing up in Bluebell or not. But in this story, he didn't.


	4. Warmth

**It Melted**

When I first laid my eyes on him, Cam was a cold person. He kept everything to himself even when he got sick from overworking.

"May I come in?" I knocked the door to Cam's room. I heard a muffled 'yes' and went in.

"I made soup."

As I feared, he was weak and dreadful looking. Poor thing. I helped him to a sitting position and was about to spoon-feed him when he stopped me.

"No, I'll do it myself."

After the first spoonful, it seemed that he was filled with warmth that melted his cold heart.

He finally smiled.

* * *

**AN: **

Cam surely took his time warming up to this family. I can't help but write Howard as a gentle soul to the people he cares despite being expressive in front of people.


	5. Clouds

**Just Up There**

"Daddy, where's mommy?"

We had just visited Jessica's store to get more eggs. Ash was handling the purchase since Jessica was tending the baby.

"She..." I struggled to find a word. Was she too young to understand? "She's up in the clouds." I finally told her; my mind made up.

"Cows?"

"No, sweetheart." I picked Laney up and carried her in my arms. With my head, I pointed upwards. "Clouds. Aren't they beautiful?"

"Like the sheep!" She screamed out excitedly.

"Yes." I couldn't help but smile along. "Whenever you think of mommy, just look at the clouds, ok?"

"Ok, daddy."

* * *

**AN: **

I can't help but feel sad when Howard thinks of his wife. He really is being strong for Laney.


	6. Bells

**Summer Bell**

When Laney entered the café after chatting with Georgia, she was holding a small ceramic bell with a rectangular paper attached to the bottom that she blew to make a soft _dinging _noise.

"Look Dad, Lilian gave this to me."

"What is it?"

"A summer bell. I was thinking of putting this outside to attract customers."

"It sounded oddly peaceful."

"Doesn't it?"

"May I?"

"Um, ... no offense Dad but I'd rather not?"

"Oh, I'll be careful." With great force I grabbed the bell from her and it was crushed to pieces.

"... Let's not tell Lilian about this incident."

* * *

**AN: **Just to clear things up, the bell I mentioned was the Japanese bell that people put up during Summer. The one that makes noises when winds enters their porch and such.

Unfortunately Howard was too strong to hold something delicate like that and he still underestimate his strength despite the number of incident he had gone through. Laney tried to stop him, but he's Howard, he loves those kind of things.


	7. Love

**There's Love for Everyone.**

"I don't want to fall in love." Laney stated out of the blue.

"Why not?"

"He might do what mom did to you."

"You still hate her?"

"... I hated that she hurt you. Don't you?"

I was touched. "You're the best daughter in the world and that is exactly why I could never hate her. She gave me you."

Cam entered during this fatherly love.

"I'll ... leave you two alone." He walked away.

"One day the two of you will find love. If not with each other." I teased.

She turned bright red and started to hit me.

* * *

**AN: **Laney loves her dad as much as he loves her. Cam bears witness to these sometimes. It's just too awkward for him. :) Poor Cam.


	8. Cold

**Sick with Cold**

The only time I ever caught a cold was when I was young. She came by to take care of me since my parents were too busy. Her milk stew was the best stew I'd ever tasted. Must've been the fresh milk she used from the farm.

As she sat there with her hand on my forehead, making sure my fever was not worsening, I knew she was the one I wanted. I told her that and she laughed. She told me my voice sounded funny because of the congestion in my nose.

I haven't been sick ever since then.

* * *

**AN: **I figured the theme 'cold' doesn't necessarily mean temperature so I went for this: another story of Howard's past. Makes me wonder what kind of girl she was...


	9. Coffee

**Black Coffee**

Her hair reminded me of coffee. Dark brown. It would sometimes smell like one, too. She used to tell me that if I were to compare her to a coffee to make it black coffee because it was her favorite.

I told Laney about this when she stumbled across her picture I hid in my bedroom. Ever since then, whenever she was thinking about her mother, she would drink black coffee. The flavor reminded her of the bitterness she felt towards her. It kept her from missing her mother.

And me? I always make sure I drink coffee every morning.

* * *

**AN:**

So Laney didn't get her blonde hair color from her mother.. I like writing about Howard's wife; his thoughts, his reminiscing. I always wonder how he gave the blue feather..


	10. Gift

**A Gift of Love**

Cam was waiting for me in front of my door this morning. He asked me to help him make a chocolate party cake for a special someone. It was the first time I had ever seen him acting so fidgety when asking me a favor. As we mix the dough together, I tried to make him slip a name of this mysterious girl he was going to surprise. All I got was an embarrassed, angry shout from him telling me to heat up the oven. Ah, this surely reminded me of my days baking the perfect cake for my love.

* * *

**AN:** Cooking a chocolate cake for Spring Harmony Day was surely an obvious message to Howard that you like someone. Cam may act cool in his shop, but behind that counter with Howard, he could be as red as the tomato grown in Konohana.


	11. Fire

**Cooking Fun**

"FIRE! Somebody put out the fire!"

My first meal was a disaster. After I had tasted her soup, something stirred in me that urged myself to make something as delicious. People said the easiest meal to make was omelet. Perhaps they were lying.

I never burnt the house down but there had been some close calls when the pots exploded and she was always there, laughing at my failed attempts as I ran back and forth in a panicked frenzy. Sometimes I thought of messing up just to see her laugh like that. Cooking was always fun with her around.

* * *

**AN:** I'm sure Howard's not always a perfect chef. It would've been wonderful if his wife gets to stay in the cafe with him. But then Howard won't be Howard.


	12. Marriage

**Wedding**

The words: "I do" had never felt so ... emotional until it was said in a church. My parents didn't attend. They had disowned me the moment I refused to continue their business. It didn't matter though because now I had a beautiful wife by my side.

Her farmer friends—who also became my friends—congratulated us as we walked out of the church onto our "just married" horse cart. It was a simple wedding, but a beautiful one indeed.

She told me she wanted her daughter to wear the same veil one day. I still kept it with me.

* * *

**AN: **I want to see Howard wearing a suit, waiting for his beloved to go down the isle. He must've been so cute, that big awkward bear being all embarrassed. Awww..

(Okay, in Word doc, it was counted as 100 but fanfic counted it as 101..so I went with Word's word count. Word!)


	13. Death

**Death Kills.**

It would be easier to tell Laney that her mother had died. Growing up, she finally understood what really happened to her mother yet preferred the death excuse to be true.

Laney received a letter once and immediately ripped it apart without reading it. "Mother's dead to me." She said. I kept the letter in case she ever regretted it. I hoped that she'd learn to forgive her. Death was not a pleasant thing nor would it ever be.

The day before she left, she told me her love for me was dead and a part of me died too.

* * *

**AN: **Man, now I wanna know what really happened with Laney's mother! My brain won't even tell it to me. I'm guessing Dirk gets to see a bit of Laney's non-smiling side sometimes. He must've been curious about the letter afterwards.


End file.
